In a recent interview with NYTimes.com rapper Drake opens up about his short-lived relationship with singer Rihanna and getting robbed at gunpoint in his own hometown of Toronto, Canada. He says Rihanna used him as a “pawn” and mentioned a song he wrote for her that she never used. The Young Money emcee also talked about how he was robbed at gunpoint in a Toronto restaurant and how he feels “unsafe in Toronto at all times.” Read about what Drake had to say about all of this below:
On Rihanna using him as a pawn:
On “Fireworks” there’s a verse about Rihanna, who asked him last year to write a song for her new album; the two soon began seeing each other regularly, though they never publicly confirmed their brief relationship. “I was a pawn,” Drake said. The song he wrote for her never got released. “You know what she was doing to me? She was doing exactly what I’ve done to so many women throughout my life, which is show them quality time, then disappear,” he said. “I was like, wow, this feels terrible.” But it’s also the new normal, and Drake wonders if real intimacy is now out of reach, maybe irretrievably so. “Did I sacrifice something?” he asked, looking for the black cloud above the silver lining. “Have I not realized what it is yet because I’m enjoying this too much?”On feeling unsafe in Toronto:
In May 2009 he was robbed at gunpoint in a Toronto restaurant. He cooperated with the police investigation, in what some perceived as a violation of hip-hop’s no-snitching ethos. The black gossip Web site MediaTakeout.com posted a snapshot of a page of the criminal complaint under the headline “Caught Snitchin!!! Rapper Drake Testifying Against Men Who Robbed Him!!!”“I feel unsafe in Toronto at all times,” Drake said. “I’m a one of one. There’s no one else you can hate as much as me if you hate money, or you hate success.” Reminders of fame’s dark side are all around him. Since March his mentor and label boss, Lil Wayne, has been on Rikers Island serving a one-year sentence in connection with a 2007 gun charge. This month Drake visited him there for the first time. “That’s not the place for him,” Drake said.
